Appeals court sides with judge who blocked Trump administration from ending protections for nearly 600K Venezuelans

A federal appeals court has found that the Trump administration likely acted unlawfully when it ended protections for nearly 600,000 Venezuelans to live and work in the United States, upholding a lower court’s decision to postpone the government’s termination.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals also upheld District Judge Edward Chen’s authority to issue a final decision in the case, which challenged the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans ahead of a deadline previously issued by the Biden administration.

“In enacting the TPS statute, Congress designed a system of temporary status that was predictable, dependable, and insulated from electoral politics,” the three-judge panel wrote in Friday’s ruling.

“Moreover, Plaintiffs have demonstrated that they face irreparable harm to their lives, families, and livelihood, that the balance of equities favors a grant of preliminary relief, and that nationwide relief is appropriate,” the court added.

The government argued that a district judge could not challenge Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s decision to end the protections.

Although the DHS secretary has wide discretion to extend or end protections for TPS holders, Venezuelan plaintiffs — represented by the National TPS Alliance, the National Day Labor Organizing Network and other advocacy groups — argued a secretary could not reverse a predecessor’s decision.

On Friday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously disagreed with the government, paving the way for Chen to make a final decision in the case.

Because of Noem’s decision to reverse former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’ extension of protections, around 350,000 TPS holders from Venezuela lost status in April. Another estimated 250,000 are set to lose protections in September depending on the outcome of the case.

Chen had halted the administration’s efforts to end protections while the case continued, but his order was overturned by the Supreme Court in May.

ABC News has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on Friday’s ruling but has not yet received a response.

Emi Maclean, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California, said the “severe effects” of the Trump administration’s decisions are already being felt by Venezuelans previously protected by the program.

“Individuals who have been deported, who have been separated from infant children, who are living in their car after they lost legal status… who have fled a country in crisis and sought refuge in the United States,” she said. “The government and the courts abandoned them to really devastating circumstances.”

The appeals court seemed to echo those sentiments in Friday’s ruling.

“The TPS statute is designed to constrain the Executive, creating predictable periods of safety and legal status for TPS beneficiaries. Sudden reversals of prior decisions contravene the statute’s plain language and purpose,” the court wrote. “Here, hundreds of thousands of people have been stripped of status and plunged into uncertainty. The stability of TPS has been replaced by fears of family separation, detention, and deportation. Congress did not contemplate this, and the ongoing irreparable harm to Plaintiffs warrants a remedy pending a final adjudication on the merits.”

Chen can now issue a final ruling, though it will likely get appealed to the Supreme Court if the Trump administration finds it unfavorable.